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Modern Family star Ariel Winter poses as a 12-year-old to catch child predator in ‘scary’ undercover operation

Modern Family star Ariel Winter posed as a 12-year-old on SOSA Undercvoer, a true crime series, as part of an operation to nab a child predator.

Updated on: Jun 15, 2025, 08:59:30 IST
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Actor Ariel Winter is putting her acting skills to some great use. The 27-year-old, who is best known for playing Alex Dunphy on Modern Family, recently posed as a 12-year-old girl to lure and catch a sexual predator. The actor teamed up with a non-profit organisation for the sting operation.

Modern Family star Ariel Winter posed as a 12-year-old on SOSA Undercvoer, a true crime series.
Modern Family star Ariel Winter posed as a 12-year-old on SOSA Undercvoer, a true crime series.

Ariel Winter poses as a 12-year-old on SOSA Undercover

The nonprofit Safe from Online Sex Abuse (SOSA) produces a true crime docuseries called SOSA Undercover, which streams on YouTube. One of the recent episodes had Ariel Winter on the show, wherein she posed as a 12-year-old girl to lure in a predator in Oklahoma City. The actor wore a blonde wig and FaceTimed a 31-year-old child predator in the episode. The actor stayed in a child-like room for the 'performance' and even used a different voice than hers. The episode shows her talking to the man and eventually confronting him with the authorities present.

Speaking about the experience in an interview with the Daily Mail, Ariel said, “It’s definitely cathartic to be teaming with SOSA, knowing that I can make a difference. It can be scary at times pretending to be 12 and talking to older men, but it’s validating to put away predators that have been harming children.”

Ariel said that she drew from her own experiences as a child actor for the show. “Growing up in the entertainment industry, I’ve been the girl we are trying to save. It’s vital to me to help protect young women from the experiences I endured in my own life,” she said.

Ariel Winter's career

Ariel began work on television at the age of 6, first appearing in commercials, followed by minor roles in TV shows like Listen Up and Freddie in 2005. The same year, she made her film debut with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. After several episodic roles on TV and cameos in films, Ariel found her breakthrough playing Alex Dunphy on Modern Family from 2009-20.

  • Abhimanyu Mathur
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Abhimanyu Mathur

    Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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